Philip Pape 0:00

Hello everyone, welcome to a special Saturday bonus listener Q&A for Wits and Waits. Today I'm answering one of the first questions that came in under our new simplified question form on the website. So this is where you can submit a question. I will answer it on the podcast. I will also reply to you directly by email with a personalized answer and you just have to go to witsandwaitscom slash question to submit. That Link will also be in the show notes. All right, today's question Nancy asked.

Philip Pape 0:31

Google says muscle weighs the same as body fat. Is this true? So, first of all, nancy, again thank you for using my new form and sending in the question. I love this question because it's going to help us clear up a misconception and the simple answer to the literal question, does muscle weigh the same as body fat is yes, but it's a bit of tongue in cheek, a bit of sarcasm, so forgive me for a second. Because a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat, because a pound is a pound, right, whether it's a pound of feathers or a pound of rocks or a pound of lean tissue versus fat.

Philip Pape 1:06

But I really think what you're asking is not just the weight itself. What you're really curious about is the difference between muscle and fat in terms of their properties, especially their density, and how they affect how you look, how they affect your body composition. And that's where it gets interesting. And really the question does have a lot of criticality with everything we talk about on this show, because muscle is denser than fat. Muscle is denser than fat, and I think you've heard that. But what does that mean? Well, let's look at the numbers first. Muscle has a density of about 1.06 grams per milliliter. Fat is 0.9 grams per milliliter, so 1.06 versus 0.9, which means muscle is about 18% less volume. Okay, a pound of muscle will take up 18% less volume than a pound of fat, so of course they weigh the same, but the muscle's taking up less space. So muscle that took up all the same space would actually weigh more, if that's what we're asking. So imagine you had a pound of muscle and a pound of fat sitting side by side. The muscle is just going to look smaller and more compact and the fat's going to be larger and fluffier, and that is a very important difference in density. That causes changes in your body shape and your body measurements, even when there's no change on the scale, and this is why we talk about the scale itself being highly misleading, especially if you were a newer lifter or even an intermediate lifter who's finally starting to make more progress. This is where I help my clients navigate through what looks like weight plateaus or weight or fat loss plateaus, but they're actually something very magical going on Because, let's say, you're working hard in the gym, you're training, you're progressing, you're lifting, you're getting stronger and you're eating a reasonably high protein diet by high, I mean 0.7 to 1 grams per pound, like we recommend and you could be losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time, like we recommend.

Philip Pape 3:02

And you could be losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time, which we call body recomp, body recomposition. You might be doing this while maintaining your weight on purpose, but you also may be doing it while trying to lose weight. And then, all of a sudden, it seems like you're stalling out and the scale, like, stays the same for a few days, or even weeks, or even goes up. But because muscle is dense, right, right, your body could be improving regardless and getting leaner, your waist might shrink, your clothes might fit better, your definition improves, and yet the scale is staying the same, maybe even going up, and that's why it's so important to look at the whole thing. This is why we emphasize body composition over weight, even though it's very important to track the weight and your more importantly importantly trend of that weight over time in terms of like, are you in the deficit or surplus you want to be? Um, body fat or body composition is really important.

Philip Pape 3:57

Now, I don't like to overemphasize body fat percentage itself as a number. I've talked about that before, about the errors in DEXA scans and bio impedance uh, bioelectrical impedance and any, any form of body fat measurements Heck, even calipers can be a little bit off. I like just good old-fashioned tape measurements and progress photos and how you look and feel and how you perform. Right, just putting those together and in fact, you can calculate a body fat trend using just the measurements. Now, muscle itself is a game changer. For that very reason, I recently did an episode I think it was 257, on why a lot of people should actually be gaining weight.

Philip Pape 4:37

If you've never gained weight to build muscle and you always are trying to cut, that could be the thing holding you back, not just for how you look, but even for your health, because, compared to fat, muscles much more metabolically active. Each pound of muscle burns up to nine calories per day, but conservatively four to seven, and fat burns around two calories per day. So it's still active, but less so, and so it might not seem like a lot, but when you gain muscle, it's going to boost your resting metabolic rate. You're going to burn more calories throughout the day and on top of that, if you can walk around heavier on the scale anyway, that further increases your metabolism. Not to mention all the benefits we go on about here, like insulin sensitivity and bone density, and your physical performance, your function, your strength. It's a win across the board. So, nancy, thank you for the question because it led to a longer answer than I anticipated, but it's important. First of all, you're right, muscle does weigh the same as fat Google will tell you that but the difference is they have different densities. A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat, and that is why we want to focus on building muscle and improving body composition far more than worrying about the number on the scale. If you're listening now, you're wondering how to track these changes or how to start building more muscle.

Philip Pape 5:50

Reach out and ask me a question. I have lots of ways to connect with me, but for today's episode I want you to go to witsandweightscom slash question and just throw a question in there. I will answer it on the podcast if you'd like. If you don't want me to just say, hey, this is just a personal question for you, that's fine and thank you again for sending it in. If anybody has questions about fitness, nutrition, body composition, training, mindset, I want to answer it on the show. So just go to witsandweightscom slash question. All right, until our next full episode, keep lifting, keep learning. Remember that these are all different tools and when you understand how they work, you can make the most of them.